The Pennsylvania House in Springfield is the grandest tavern on the National Road in Ohio. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

I continued traveling west on the National Road/U.S. 40 for the last in this series of Dusty Tires on the Road videos, visiting downtown Springfield and traveling west all the way to the Indiana border.

This segment was, like most of the others, filled with some wrong turns and missed opportunities, but it was worthwhile just the same.

Two of my goals for Springfield were to find and photograph the Clark County Courthouse and the Madonna of the Trail statue, and I could find neither.

Later, after looking at the video and consulting Google Maps closely, I determined that at one point I was only one block away from the courthouse building. And I actually passed the Madonna statue but didn’t realize it since a large red emergency vehicle was passing me, pretty much blocking my view.

But it was interesting driving around (twice) downtown Springfield. There’s a good mix of old restored buildings and more modern ones. It’s just difficult to find specific places without a ride-along navigator (no, I don’t use Alexa, nor do I ask for directions).

I had been to the Pennsylvania House before, so I found that place rather easily on W. Main Street. This is a marvelous building, built in 1839. The tavern originally had 26 rooms and a kitchen separate from the house. Several large barns were adjacent to the house to shelter wagons and livestock of overnight guests.

The barns and kitchen are long gone but the remaining Federal-style, 7,000-square-foot structure has three floors of 19th century furniture, paintings, clocks, portraits, china, glass, dolls, textiles, and an extensive button collection.

Note: If you do not see the video above in the email, please use this link — https://youtu.be/dS-e96Ho-wE

The Pennsylvania House has been included on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973. In addition to the NRHP plaque, an authentic National Road mile marker is displayed at the front entrance. The museum is owned and operated by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Going further west on U.S. 40, I passed through the towns of Donnelsville, Vandalia, Englewood, Lewisburg and several don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-them small towns. Just past Lewisburg there’s Bob’s Nickel Saver, former cottage lodging that was turned into a small truck stop, and a motel that continues life as apartments.

Foot Print Rock is easy to miss. I passed it once on U.S. 40, but turned around and viewed this small natural feature, which most likely has the tiniest highway sign ever to mark its location. This small glacial groove in the rock measures probably three feet long and about a foot wide.

Finally, I drove the final Ohio segment of the original National Road located only about a mile from Indiana.

So this is the last in the series of U.S. 40/National Road video stories, but Dusty Tires on the Road is just getting started. I’ll be recording more trips to places around Ohio every week as schedule, weather and circumstances allow.

Ken Drenten is creator and editor of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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